The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-02-16
THE HOME DOCTOR.
Cause and Cure of Nasal Catar

Melville G. Keith, M. D., gives in
Health and Home the subjoined explana-
tion of the cause and cure of that COM
mon trouble, nasal catarrh:
First. Take two glasses and fill one
glass with clear dry starch. FIJI the
other glass with acid of any kind. Now
turn the two glasses mouth to mouth and
shake the contents together vigorously
for thirty minutes. When this is finished
you will find that all the starch has been
changed to sugar by the action of the
scid. This is a lava chemical law
which is so we'll understood that hun
dreds of thousands of dollars are ex-
pended in the construction of manufac-
tories to turn the starch of corn into glu-
cose, thence into sugar.
Now this process is also physiologi-
cal Law. or all the starch taken into
the stomach, as food, must be changed
by an acid into dextrine, and next into
sugar. When the starch has been
changed by this acid into sugar, the
sugar is used up by the body to furnish
heat. When it is not used up as heat
the sugar thus formed from starch can
be turned into fat It does not matter
whether we regard the saliva, the gas
trio juice, the pancreatic juice or the sue
Gus entericus Guice of the intestines), as
acids or sferments." The acid must be in
the body and mus be placed in contact
with the starch, or the starch remains un-
changed.
This is law just as much as tits law
that you can take two glasses full Of
starch and shake them together through
all the eternal ages, and you would have
two glasses of starch when you finished.
Starch requires an acid to change it to
sugar and this law holds good as well IN
the human body as it does IN the glucose
manufactory.
Now apply this law to the diet of the
ordinary individual and you have the
cause of catarrh.
The human being who takes in starch
as food, and does not have sufficient
quantity of acid to change the starch in.
to dextrine and thence into sugar, will
have that starch either passed off as un-
digested starch or it remains in the body
as undigested starch. But in any event
it is starch, starch, starth, and 80 re-
mains. As long as it is well diluted and
kept at the body temperature of ninety
eight to ninety-nine degrees it will be
fluid, and, in the case of laboring man,
o portion of it may be spit up and spit
off, especially by users of tobacco. But
q cold in the head partially congeals this
starch and it becomes thick exudation
from the mucous membrane. There is
a dropping of this undigested starch
(which is exuded or thrown out through
the mucous membrane) into the throat,
and the unfortunate wretch has the
catarrh.
Starch then is the basis of catarrh.
Hundreds of people 60 to see some
"specialist in catarrh," and pay a big fee
to have their catarrh cured. The special
ist (who usually travels and advertises
in all the leading papers) has q powerful
douche and forces spray OF an acid,
usually alum, but sometimes diluted sui
phuric or nitric acid, through this power
full douche into the nostrils and throat
and clears out the offending excess Of
starch. The patient thinks himself or
herself cured. But the mucous membrane
of the nostrils and throat are simply
deadened and tanned.
The sense of smelling is lost and the
victim of the specialist will have tie
catarrah return again # the same classes
of food are eaten.
In countries where rice is eaten, the
natives have sufficient quantity of acid
from the fruits and vegetable to assist in
changing the starch into sugar.
Blu in this country where potatoes are
a very common article of diet, the starch
isin excess, and there is not enough acid
eaten to change the starch into sugar.
Hence potato eaters are usually thetper-
sons who have On excess of starch in the
BODY and who suffer from catarrh. The
potato contains one-ffth of pure starch
and is eaten without any regard
its dietic qualities. The little ones
who are unknowingly fed upon an ex-
cess of potato are those who have en-
largel tonsils, enlarged Emphatic
glands, heightened uvula and running
noses.
. Other secretions of the body are sup
plemented by this exudation of starch.
Ladies suffer more than men because OF
their confinement indoors. A volume
could easily be written upon this topic,
but let the readers of this article save
their fees to physicians for the cure of
catarrh, and study we'll the cause or
causes. Avoid excess of starchy food,
and drink glass of acid Qemonade)
each night. Not ''patent acid, but a
pure acid, as from lemons, currants or
cranberries. Do not make the meal of
starchy potato, bat take a portion of
gluten dread or nitrogen (cabbage) and
acid (any kind OF sour sauce) with the
meal, and this, with cleanliness, will
cure any case of catarrh in the known
world. B the way. please to remem-
Der that any alkal, which neutralizes the
acid in the body, is detrimental to the
acid necessary to digest or change the
starch of the food into sugar. Hence
the alkali in the baking powder is q di-
rect assistant to the production of that
common, filthy disease, catarrh.